All the World's A Stage - Rebecca Piatt Davidson

Illustrator: Anita Lobel
For: Middle Grades
Pub: 2003
Rating: Cool
Read: Sept. 1, 2008

I stumbled upon this book while I was looking up aanother picture book about Shakespeare. Drawn immediately to Lobel's illustrations, I then realized that the verse is a take on the House that Jack Built...

This is young William,
His mind all ablaze,
Who stays up all night
Writing poems and plays.

This is the Muse
Who sings to the boy
Who stays up all night
Writing poems and plays

As the page is turned, we see that the next illustration is titled "The Comedy of Errors": At the bottom of the illustration is a famous quote from the play, "We came into the world like brother and borther, and now let's go hand in hand, not one before another."

These are the twins
In matching disguises,
Courting and sporting
All kinds of surprises...

Amusing the Muse/Who sings to the boy/Who stays up all night/Writing poems and plays.

We continue on through Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer's Night's Dream, King Lear, The Winter's Tale, and ends...

"You'll be my players
And the world, my stage.
We'll live through the tales
That unfold on each page!
Happy you'll be
When you act well your part,
And happier, I,
Making words into art."

The last three pages are information about each of the plays, descriptions of the characters in the illustration, and added commentary. The illustrations are bright, bold, drawn very much in a style that I enjoy. And yes, I can SO think of ways to use this book in my teaching of Shakespeare. I'm teaching Othello, Merchant of Venice, and Julius Caesar (as well as Romeo and Juliet) this year. I'll have the three classes that are NOT included in this book design pages in the same style and tone for the plays that they are reading! Cool!